EASTER IN PERU

The climax of the Peruvian Semana Santa - Jesus and Mary move the masses

Nowhere else in South America, people celebrate Jesus Christ's passion and resurrection with such a profound faith and fervor like in Ayacucho, in the Andean highlands of Peru. There, the Andean life style mixes with the mestizo identity and the Catholicism with pagan traditions.

All classes of population - wealthy citizens as well as simple rural people - together celebrate a great, colorful catholic festival. Men, women, adolescents and children are participating equally in the preparations, the processions or simply as spectators.

Nevertheless, the people's origin surfaces during Semana Santa: on two days, Good Friday and Glory Saturday, it is the citizens who follow the saints' effigies in the processions, while the poorer people from the surroundings take part only as spectators. In return, the processions taking place on Easter Sunday especially belong to them. On Holy Wednesday, the climax of Semana Santa, they are celebrating all together in the Procesión del Encuentro at the main square where the precious effigies of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary meet each other. The aspect of the suffering Jesus carrying the crosses' burden moves the people deeply.

Almost every evening, the same spectacle of processions arises, but nevertheless each night of the Semana Santa in Ayacucho is different to one another. Sad plainchants in Spanish or Quechua, the population's devoutness, the solemn dirges and the typical, different smells of fried sausages, punch, sweets and liqueur - all these things turn the Semana Santa in Ayacucho into a truly impressing experience.

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